AFTER six years on Britain’s favourite soap, Michelle Keegan is preparing for her final scenes that will send shock waves through Weatherfield. Leaving will be sad, she tells Mike Ward

I’m going to feel really sad to leave. It’s like my second family here. So I’m not only saying goodbye to the show and to Tina, I’m saying goodbye to everyone here that I’ve worked with for all these years

Michelle Keegan

Michelle Keegan has spent a quarter of her life being Coronation Street’s Tina McIntyre. Six-and-a-half years of 13-hour days, plus the extra time it’s taken to learn all her lines, it’s been more than just a routine, nine-to-five acting job.

“It’s all I’ve ever known,” she reflects.

But soon it will all be over. April is when Michelle films her final Corrie scenes. May is when, on screen, we’ll be saying goodbye to Tina for good. And since it’s now an open secret that the Weatherfield beauty meets something of a sticky end, we can be certain there’ll be no coming back.

“I’m going to feel really sad,” Michelle, 26, admits. “It’s like my second family here. So I’m not only saying goodbye to the show and to Tina, I’m saying goodbye to everyone here that I’ve worked with for all these years.”

But let’s save our tears for a few more weeks at least. For now, Tina has a job to do – namely, alienating enough people in Weatherfield to build up a credible list of potential murder suspects ahead of her grisly demise. Rumour has it there’ll be at least four names in the frame.

Sowing what may well prove to be the seeds of her own destruc-tion, Tina has spent the past few months betraying close friend Carla Barlow by carrying on with her terminally untrustworthy husband, Peter.

Tina has at least had the decency to look somewhat ashamed of herself at times, but it hasn’t stopped her. And right now, in the clueless Carla’s continued absence, the affair has hit a new level of intensity.

This week sees Tina and Peter effectively bedded in like a proper couple, albeit under circumstances that can only be temporary.

“Yeah, literally they’re living as a couple for two whole weeks,” says Michelle. “But I do think there’s a crossed wire here. He wants one thing, she wants the other. But because they’re spending so much time together, I think she believes it’s something that it’s not. It’s as if she’s living a fantasy life at the minute.”

But what exactly does Tina see in this man: an alcoholic, a former bigamist, a habitual liar and, let’s not forget, more than 20 years her senior?

“I do genuinely think she’s in love with him,” Michelle insists. “As he’s an older man, she feels protected by him. She’s so used to being on her own, and people leaving her, that she wants the security she feels he’ll be able to give her. She likes the idea of being part of a family unit.”

But this has all got rather out of hand, hasn’t it?

“Yes, at the beginning it was really quite innocent. It was just a bit of a flirt. But those stronger feelings started to develop quickly, and it’s turned into something more than she intended. She’s waiting for him to turn around and say, ‘I’ll be with you’,” she says.

Michelle Keegan and Mark Wright at the National Television Awards [GETTY]

Tina’s years on Coronation Street have seen her hook up with a variety of boyfriends, not all of whom have been entirely good for her. They’ve included David Platt, Jason Grimshaw, Graeme Proctor, Dr Matt Carter and, most recently, the hapless Tommy Duckworth. Looking back, are there any chaps on that list she was genuinely suited to?

“I think maybe Jason was all right for her,” Michelle reflects. “I think she was quite settled with him. The reason they split up was because she’d just lost her dad and she couldn’t cope, and Jason just wasn’t the type of person to deal with it well. He sort of pushed it under the carpet. That’s why she leant on Graham instead, and that’s when they started seeing each other.”

And of course, Tina’s connection with David Platt these days goes a little deeper than just ex-lovers.

“Yes, because her dad and his mum were married, so she thinks, ‘Right, he’s my stepbrother, he’s always going to be looking out for me, we’re always going to look after each other’,” she says.

Tina’s next significant step will see her moving in with Steph, a rare case of her finding a female friend she can lean on.

“She’s decided to stay,” Michelle explains. “But she can’t afford to pay the rent on her own. Steph sort of becomes Tina’s confidante, and Tina reveals she’s seeing a married man. She asks for Steph’s advice, but she doesn’t tell her who this man is.

“It’s good, because Tina’s never really had a girlfriend. It’ll be nice to see her with a girlfriend rather than just with mates who are boys.”

By this stage, however, Michelle accepts that her character’s behaviour may well have lost her the respect of many Corrie viewers.

“Oh, definitely. She’s gone a bit to too far now. Maybe she could have pulled it back if it was just one mistake. People would have understood, because of what happened with her and Tommy and how vulnerable that left her,” Michelle admits.

“But I think the fact that she’s still carrying on, and not leaving Peter alone, means she’ll probably lose the audience.”

As for Michelle’s post-Corrie plans, she’s initially looking forward to spending more time with her fiancé, The Only Way Is Essex star turned TV presenter Mark Wright, 27. The couple became engaged last summer.

Mark has been jetting all over the place in recent months, filming a new ITV2 series called Party Wright Around The World.

“But he’s finished that now,” says Michelle, “and he’s not travelling again until the summer, so we’ve got a few months. That’ll be nice.”

And work-wise?

“I don’t know,” she admits. “Nothing is set in stone yet. I’ve got a few things lined up. If I don’t go straight into a job, I’ll go away for a few weeks.”

Some stars, when they leave a soap, go to great lengths to rid themselves of their former character’s image. But although she’ll no longer spend 65 hours a week being Tina McIntyre, Michelle insists she’s not planning any kind of radical post-Tina makeover – by cutting her hair short, for example, or turning peroxide blonde.